The Tory MP David Burrowes has written to the attorney general, Dominic Grieve QC, asking him to review the eight-month sentences imposed on Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce on the grounds that they are "unduly lenient".

Any request has to be considered. A spokesperson for the attorney general said a decision on whether or not to refer the sentences to the appeal court will be taken within 28 days of the original sentences.

Huhne is "absolutely fine and in good spirits", his partner said, quashing rumours that the former Cabinet minister was being bullied in prison. Carina Trimingham said claims he was ridiculed on his first day in Wandsworth prison and had asked to be moved to a wing for vulnerable prisoners were "complete and utter nonsense".

Trimingham, who visited Huhne, 58, on Wednesday, said: "He is getting on well both with inmates and officers."

Former Cabinet minister Huhne and his ex-wife Vicky Pryce were each jailed for eight months on Monday for perverting the course of justice when she took speeding points for him a decade ago.

Trimingham explained how she got a parking ticket during her visit to the south-west London prison. She said she arrived at 7am to see Huhne for what she thought was a one-hour visit at 8am, but was allowed two and a half hours with him as it was an "induction visit" – available to every inmate when they get their first visitor.

"I arrived at 7am, got to see him at 8am, and didn't leave until after 10.30am. You can't park there between 10 and 11 so I got a ticket."

Of the claims about Huhne's experiences in jail, she said: "It's complete and utter nonsense, there's not a grain of truth in it."

She said when she had spoken to the former Cabinet minister about the rumours, he had said: "I can't believe it, nothing could be further from the truth."

"There was no tannoy announcement, full stop," Ms Trimingham said. "Also, all prisoners get their breakfast on a tray delivered to them the night before for them to eat in the morning.

"Second, he is not being moved, nor has he been moved.

"The first night you are all watched for your first night and then you get moved, if you're OK, to the regular wing.

"Yesterday he moved on to the regular wing and that's where he is going to stay. He has got no desire to move to another wing.

"He has not been bullied or ridiculed by any prisoners or officers and no one has asked him for any money."

Trimingham – for whom Huhne left Pryce in June 2010, ending their 26-year marriage – said he was spending his time reading a lot, mainly novels.

Jailing Huhne on Monday at Southwark crown court, Mr Justice Sweeney told the former Eastleigh MP that he had fallen from a "great height", and his ex-wife Pryce from a "considerable height".

Pryce, 60, was convicted after a retrial last week, while Huhne pleaded guilty last month after denying the offence for nearly two years.

The former energy secretary, who once had ambitions for the Liberal Democrat leadership, was the first ex-Cabinet minister since Jonathan Aitken to be jailed.

Pryce is in Holloway prison. Her solicitor Robert Brown yesterday indicated an appeal was still being considered, telling BBC Radio 4's Today that a decision would await examination of the full transcripts of the retrial.

Brown said the law needed to be updated, but added: "Those responsible for that should be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. There are still cases where there are women in relationships where they are vulnerable and they may be put under pressure to commit crimes and they need the state to be able to defend them rather than just prosecute them."

He went on: "We shouldn't forget … that it is government policy and it is part of the CPS policy, that domestic violence is not confined to physical violence; it includes the application of pressure, specifically, and coercion, specifically.

"When you have someone in the sort of position Vicky Pryce was in in this trial, what's the state to do about it?

"Is it to regard her as a victim of violence ... or should she be seen as a defendant? That's a conundrum for public policy which needs to be sorted out."